O.A.R.
October 23, 2006 by Tom
3 Comments
Last night Beth and I went up to Milwaukee for the O.A.R. show. It’s been over a year since I’ve seen an O.A.R. show which is really, really surprising considering I’ve got to be in the neighborhood of having seen 40 shows so far. It’s always an interesting show in Milwaukee and things haven’t changed much.
The Rave still sucks. Really badly. I think it’s seriously the worst venue in the country. It sounds bad. It looks bad. The staff sucks. I had to wait again for some security supervisor to come down and approve my taping gear because nobody gave the goons working the front door a memo that taping is ok. Is it really that hard? It’s not a problem at any other venue except the Rave. Every single time.
Milwaukee fans are still idiots. I haven’t seen so many fall-down drunk people at a show in years, but of course Milwaukee knows how to impress. The crowd was full of trashy people, but I guess you can’t expect much from a town that produces Miller products. The people who live in Milwaukee are seriously just trash.
We got to the Rave way early to try and score a balcony seat, but as we got upstairs we were told we needed special balcony seats. BS! Nowhere on Ticketmaster or the Rave’s site did it say you needed special seats or even presented the option for the seats. One more reason The Rave should be leveled to the ground. The management there must be full of idiots. At least the security guard didn’t really care and after we complained a bit he let us walk by and find a seat. It was just annoying that we even had to go through that.
The opening band, Army of Me, was pretty lame, but thankfully there were some girls clearly on drugs dancing around on the floor like it was the World Dance Off Championships….for mentally challenged kids. It was hilarious. I have no idea what they were on, but it sure looked like fun. We spent their set picking out stupid people on the floor and making fun of them. Hippie girl who wore wings to the show – thanks for the entertainment. Idiot.
Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers were the second band up and while I’d never seen them I had heard they put on a good show. We were both really impressed with them by the end of the show. The music was good and they were hilarious as entertainers. There was a medley of hit songs through the decades, a funny movie quote segment and some gymnastics done on stage. Towards the end it was feeling a little cheap and gimmicky, but it was fun overall. They closed the show with a cover of I’ve Had the Time of my Life which was hysterical, but it really got the crowd primed.
O.A.R. came on stage with some weird, slow introduction to City On Down. I can’t say I really enjoyed it. Heard the World followed and it was a shock how much the crowd loves that song. Not that I think it’s a bad song, but it was very evident that the crowd there was fans of the new stuff more than the older albums. Lay Down and Black Rock were next. I could do without either of them, but the “Blood” outro to Black Rock is always neat with Malibu on the lights.
Then Marc announced a new/old song they were gonna play and on came Dinner Last Night. Holy crap! I know they’ve played it a few times lately, but before then I don’t think it had been played since 2001. Even back then it was just a meandering jam with some pretty weak lyrics. Now it’s been turned into a full song with a complete chorus. I liked it. It made the show for me at that point.
Anyway had an awesome, extended jam, but at this point the trashy Milwaukee crowd was really into crowd surfing which prompted Marc to ask them to calm down. Dareh Meyod was one of the weaker versions I’ve heard, but I’ve always felt the song doesn’t fit in a show unless it’s an opening to a set. The Stranger sounded surprisingly good and then we got some So Moved On. I don’t know if I ever get tired of that song.
Next was Something Coming Over which has also been making quite the comeback lately. It was left off of Stories of a Stranger because it wasn’t finished according to the band, but it didn’t sound much different than the 2004 versions. I always thought it was pretty perfect so I hope they don’t change it any more. Hey Girl and Love and Memories were big crowd pleasers. 52-50 is such a great song. The ending build up is so well done. Marc actually put his guitar down and was running around with the mic trying to get the crowd into the song at the end. Poker ended the set which is totally lame, but hey, the crowd loves it so I guess I understand.
The encore stated with a new SK6ers song called Big Easy that Marc contributed vocals to. I thought it sounded really good and I’m looking forward to the studio version of it. The 2nd half of Delicate Few closed out the show which the crowd seemed to enjoy. A cup of coffee and some late night snacks found us on the road home. Too bad we didn’t get to stop at Michael’s Diner for the amazing Dagwood burger.
I taped both O.A.R. and Stephen Kellog and the Sixers so I’ll post links to the mp3s when they’re available.
Here’s the full setlist:
City On Down
Heard the World
Lay Down
Black Rock
Dinner Last Night
Anyway
Dareh Meyod
The Stranger
So Moved On
Something Coming Over
Hey Girl
Love and Memories
52-50
That Was a Crazy Game of Poker
—–
Big Easy
Delicate Few
O.A.R. & Stephen Kellogg - Big Easy.mp3
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Here’s what Tom missed:
1. Let’s not promote stereotypes… not EVERYONE in Milwaukee is trashy. There was a group of people sitting next to us for the majority of the show who were very nice seemed normal. I will, however, admit that the majority of people there looked like they would end up on Jerry Springer.
2. I disagree that the Stephen Kellogg set got “cheap and gimmicky”. I thought they were a great opening act…. getting the crowd moving and screaming for songs they mostly didn’t know. They worked the stage and I enjoyed their show.
3. I realized that hippie flailing about dancing looks too much like Elaine on Seinfeld dancing for me to look at them without laughing. Enough said.
Hey, I was at the same concert - it was my first O.A.R. concert. I loved it. I was wondering if you could post the concert or send me the files- It would be much appreciated, I brought my girlfriend so if I gave her the CD of our first concert it would seal the deal! Thanks Justin
Justin, the O.A.R. set is available at http://www.archive.org/details/oar2006-10-22.flac16 and the Stephen Kellog set is available at http://www.archive.org/details/sk62006-10-22.flac16